Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan plan joint oil and gas venture

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are studying the possibility of creating a joint oil and gas enterprise, said Kazakh Minister of Energy Kanat Bozumbayev and Azerbaijani Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov during their meeting in Astana.

“We are now considering the opportunity of setting up a joint enterprise in the oil and gas industry because Azerbaijan, similar to Kazakhstan, has a rich history of oil and gas industry development. Today, Kazakhstan has big projects in oil and gas exploration and we can consolidate these efforts to establish a joint venture with mutually beneficial conditions,” said Shahbazov.

The two oil-rich countries are using the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a 1,768-km trans-Caspian export pipeline opened in 2005 which Kazakhstan joined the following year. Oil exports through the BTC were suspended from the second half of 2015 until last year, when Kazakhstan opted to resume them.

“It is important what my colleague said. Azerbaijan has developed oil engineering, but as you know, we support our content. We are now negotiating the construction of such a plant in Kazakhstan involving Azerbaijani capital, their experience, skills and technologies to subsequently supply these products to oil companies,” said Bozumbayev.

Construction of a liquefied gas production plant in Aktau is also on the agenda.